On July 20, the United State state of Vermont’s financial regulatory agency, the Vermont Department of Financial Regulation (DFR), warned citizens against cryptocurrency investment scams via popular social media sites.
Emphasizing “the need for Vermonters to exercise extreme caution and vigilance when using or investing in cryptocurrency,” the DFR cited an incident, in which 74-year-old Naum Lantsman lost his life savings of more than $340,000 to a cryptocurrency scam.
According to the report of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), since 2021, the scam would always start with an ad, post, or message on a social media platform and nearly four out of every ten dollars would be reported as lost to fraud originating there. The top platform related to cryptocurrency fraud is Instagram and Lantsman's initial contact with crypto scammers also happened over this media.
Naum Lantsman came across a post from SpireBit, who claimed to be an “international financial broker” that deals with cryptocurrency investment. Without any research and investigation about the platform, Lantsman opened an account and started contact with a Spirebit representative on messaging app Telegram. The initial investment of $500 ultimately led to losses of over $340,000.
